...Growing, Building, Cooking, Preserving, Crafting...

2006 began our urban homestead when I broke ground on a garden, which now includes perennial fruits, flowers, & many vegetable varieties. We dream of solar panels, keeping bees and hens. Until then we'll continue growing and preserving our own fruits and vegetables, building what we can for our home, cooking from scratch, and crafting most days.

In the meantime, I've been blogging less and doing more outside. We had a short weekend stint caring for V's classroom chickens one last time (though they're now settling at her teacher's home instead of school), we've camped along the Might Mississippi, and have spent time hanging out with friends by the lakefront.

Mickey and Maggie pecking around the backyard. The LUH looks pretty
good with a couple of hens.

One other item I've added to my summer routine is walking by the lake early in the morning in lieu of the gym. Beautiful sunrises! I've always dreamed of having this early morning time in the summer all to myself.

I never get tired of this view.

And beautiful sunsets too

My most recent project: turning an olive oil can into a pot.

Poked some drainage holes in the bottom with a can/bottle opener

Made sure there were no sharp edges around the top

Planted some flowers. We'll see how weathered the
can looks by summer's end.

I've been hanging on to this recipe for too long and now the ramps in the woods are probably all gone. But if you're interested, bookmark this for next year.